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Malankara World Journal
Theme: Suffering and Persecution Volume 5 No. 306 September 25, 2015 |
This Sunday in Church: 2nd Sunday After Sleebo Feast
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Bible Readings for This Sunday
http://www.MalankaraWorld.com/Library/Lectionary/Lec_2nd_sunday-after-sleebo.htm
Lectionary Period:
Kyomtho (Easter) to Koodosh Eetho
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INTRODUCTION:
Peer Pressure (1)
Chuck Swindoll tells the story of the spider who built a beautiful web in an old
house. He kept it clean and shiny, so flies would patronize it. The minute he
got a "customer" he would clean up after him so the other flies would not get
suspicious.
Then one day a fairly intelligent fly came buzzing by the clean spider web. Old
man spider called out, "Come in and sit." But the fairly intelligent fly said,
"No sir, I don't see other flies in your house, and I am not going in alone!"
Presently the fly saw on the floor below him a large crowd of flies dancing
around on a piece of brown paper. He was delighted! He was not afraid if lots of
flies were doing it. So he came in for a landing.
Just before he landed, a bee zoomed by, saying, "Don't land there, stupid.
That's fly-paper!"
But the fairly intelligent fly shouted back, "Don't be silly. Those flies are
dancing. There's a big crowd there. Everybody's doing it. That many flies can't
be wrong!"
Well, you know what happened. He landed on the paper and died.
Flies usually do not get a second chance.
Spider webs and sticky paper are usually 100% successful.
And even if a fly should get a second chance, it would not be long before the
same temptation would occur.
We humans have many opportunities by which to learn a single lesson.
A case in point is to be found in the experience of the disciples.
They have forgotten to bring bread.
Its time to make a sandwich and they have the filling, but no bread.
You can eat the filling, but it will not taste or feel the same.
All twelve of them had forgotten.
This would prove to be a significant learning experience for them and also it
can be for you and me.
MAIN BODY:
6Jesus said to them, "Watch out, and beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and
Sadducees."
7They said to one another, "It is because we have brought no bread."
8And becoming aware of it, Jesus said, "You of little faith, why are you talking
about having no bread?
9Do you still not perceive?
Do you not remember the five loaves for the five thousand, and how many baskets
you gathered?
10Or the seven loaves for the four thousand, and how many baskets you gathered?
11How could you fail to perceive that I was not speaking about bread?
Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees!"
12Then they understood that he had not told them to beware of the yeast of
bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.
Yeast is Leaven.
The Holman Bible Dictionary provides us with some help to understand the meaning
and purpose of yeast-leaven.
It had both positive and negative applications.
LEAVEN (Leeaw' vehn) (2)
A small portion of fermented dough used to ferment other dough and often
symbolizing a corruptive influence.
The common bread of Old Testament times was made with leaven. Such bread was
acceptable as wave offerings for the priests and as loaves to accompany the
peace offerings (Lev. 7:11-13; 23:17).
However, bread made with leaven or honey, both associated with the process of
fermentation and thus a source of corruption, was never to be used as offerings
to be burned on the alter (Lev. 2:11-12).
Unleavened bread was also prepared in times of haste (1 Sam. 18:24) and was
required for the Feast of Unleavened Bread which was celebrated in conjunction
with the Passover festival (Lev. 23:4-8).
This unleavened bread, or bread of affliction, reminded the Israelites of their
hasty departure from Egypt and warned them against corruptive influences (Ex.
12:14-20).
In the New Testament, leaven is a symbol of any evil influence which, if allowed
to remain, can corrupt the body of believers. Jesus warned His disciples against
the leaven of the Pharisees, their teaching and hypocrisy (Matt. 16:5-12; Luke
12:1).
Paul urged the Corinthians to remove wickedness from their midst and become
fresh dough, unleavened loaves of sincerity and truth (1 Cor. 5:6-13).
Jesus also used leaven to illustrate the pervasive growth of the kingdom of God
(Matt. 13:33).
Here the application is negative.
Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and the Sadducees.
The teachings of the Pharisees and the Sadducees.
What are they teaching?
Pharisees
Behaved as though their own religious rules were just as important as God's
rules for living
Their piety was often hypocritical and their efforts often forced others to try
to live up to standards they themselves could not live up to
Believed that salvation came from perfect obedience to the law and was not based
on forgiveness of sins
Became so obsessed with obeying their legal interpretations in every detail that
they completely ignored God's message of mercy and grace
Were more concerned with appearing to be good than obeying God
Sadducees
Relied on logic while placing little importance on faith
Did not believe all the Old Testament was God's Word
Did not believe in a bodily resurrection or eternal life
Did not believe in angels or demons
Were often willing to compromise their values with the Romans and others in
order to maintain their status and influential positions.
So how do you avoid the influential teachings of the Pharisees and Sadducees?
How do you sort out the differences between differing belief systems?
This is a major challenge.
One of the greatest Eastern Orthodox theologian of this century, Georges
Florovsky, put it this way: (3)
The chief danger in our days is that there are too many conflicting 'beliefs.'
The major tension is not so much between 'belief' and 'unbelief' as precisely
between rival beliefs. Too many 'strange Gospels' are preached, and each of them
claims total obedience and faithful submission.
We appeal to the authority of the scriptures.
Is it worth picking up and spending time studying?
This subject is very important, for it helps us to understand what ought to be
avoided and what ought to be maintained.
Contrast these two differing experiences:
In Jerome K. Jerome's comic novel Three Men in a Boat, the hero consults a
medical book to find out what is wrong with him: (4)
"I came to typhoid fever-read the symptoms--discovered that I must have had it
for years without knowing it--wondered what else I had got: turned up Saint
Vitus' dance--found, as I had expected, that I had that, too--began to get
interested in my case, and determined to sift it to the bottom, and so started
alphabetically--read up on ague, and learned that I was sickening for it and
that the acute state would commence in about a fortnight. Bright's disease, I
was relieved to find, I had only in a modified form, and so far as that was
concerned, I might live for years. Cholera I had, with severe complications; and
diphtheria I seemed to have been born with. I plodded conscientiously through
the 26 letters, and the only malady I could conclude I had not got was
housemaid's knee."
Malcolm Muggeridge was a successful literary critic when the BBC asked him to go
with a film crew to India to see what was going on with some do-gooder named
Mother Teresa.
Muggeridge tells of watching her work with the very lowest of the low, and he
wrote about the absurdity of bringing comfort and affection to men and women who
were the derelicts of Indian society and who could have no possible influence
upon history.
Is this any way to spend one's life? he asked.
Years later, in explaining how these five days spent in India were the most
important five days of his life, literally turning his life upside down, he put
it like this: Humankind will not be changed by being taught, but they will be
changed by what is caught. This is what happened to him: the infection called
Christianity. He caught it from a carrier of the infection named Mother Teresa,
and from then on he has shared her disease.
Points well-made.
CONCLUSION
We need the teachings of Jesus and the disciples to clear our thinking and
ratify sound teachings.
Amen!
References:
1. Dallas Seminary Daily Devotional, 7-19-04 quoted in preachingnow@preaching.com
2. Holman Bible Dictionary, Barbara J. Bruce, Contributer.
3. Christianity and Culture (Belmont, Mass.: Nordland Publishing Company, 1974),
11.
4. As quoted in Adrian Berry, The Next 500 Years: Life in the Coming Millennium
(New York: W. H. Freeman and Company, 1996), 53-54.
[Editor's Note: Excerpted from a Sermon.]
Source: lesandhelga.com
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